ISOTHERMAL FORGING

To meet the increasing forging demands of the aerospace turbine engine industry, a highly integrated, state-of-the-art isothermal (ISO) forging cell has been developed. The cell has the capacity to meet 100% of the current and projected industry need for superalloy, isothermally forged turbine engine components.

Advantages of ISO

The aircraft industry is increasing its use of nickel-based powder alloys. These alloys allow for the manufacture of higher-performing aircraft components that can withstand higher temperatures and greater stress than those manufactured from more traditional wrought alloys. Powder alloys must be extruded or consolidated into a billet, which is then forged and machined to its final net shape.

In addition to these qualitative advantages of utilizing powder alloys, isothermal forging offers a number of performance and production capacity advantages. Isothermal forging is a process in which the billet and the forging dies are heated to the same temperatures. This allows for a nearer-net-shape forging, thus reducing the amount of material necessary to produce the part as well as reducing machining requirements. A reduction in machining requirements reduces materials waste and improves throughput.

The use of an ISO cell has resulted in a significant increase in productivity where the average cycle time has been reduced by 30 to 40%, with machining times reduced by as much as 50%. Forging press setup time has been reduced by up to 50% and downtime is less than 5%. All total, these enhancements to productivity have resulted in significant unit cost reductions.